US increased import permit for steel in January 2015

According to the American Iron and Steel Institute (AISI), import approvals for steel were 4.331 million tonnes in January this year, up 20 percent from the previous month. Steel import authorization totaled 3.599 million tonnes in December 2014.

The authorized tonnage of finished steel imports in January 2015 was 3.393 million tonnes, up 15 percent of the total preliminary imports of 2.941 million tonnes in December last year. According to estimates, the market share of finished products imports in January 2015 was 32 percent.

Allowed imports of finished steel products had a colossal increase in January compared to preliminary steel imports in December 2014, including metal-coated sheets and strips (up 89 percent), structural pipes and tubular products (up 47 percent), reinforcing bars ( up to 42 percent), hot-rolled sheets (up to 38 percent) and standard pipes (up to 33 percent).

The countries that top the list in terms of permits for the import of finished rolled products and metal products in January 2015 were: South Korea (774 thousand tons, up 85 percent from December's preliminary imports), Turkey (283 thousand tons, up 76 percent). China (230 thousand tons, an increase of 6 percent), Japan (202 thousand tons, an increase of 6 percent) and Brazil (184 thousand tons, an increase of 74 percent).